Liquid crystal display devices are used as displays for notebook computers, desktop computers, and the like, utilizing their features such as space-saving due to a small thickness, and low power consumption. Furthermore, because of the recent improvement of the technique of producing a liquid crystal panel having a large screen, liquid crystal display devices have also been used as displays for televisions, most of which were hitherto cathode-ray tube-based. Although a twisted nematic (TN) display mode has been mainly used in a liquid crystal display device, the TN display mode cannot provide satisfactory viewing angle characteristics. Accordingly, as such an increase in the screen size of liquid crystal display devices advances, liquid crystal display devices utilizing display modes different from the TN display mode have been proposed in order to improve the viewing angle characteristics. Such new display modes have been used in large liquid crystal display televisions as alternatives to the TN display mode.
Examples of such display modes of a liquid crystal display element for improving viewing angle characteristics include an in-plane switching (IPS) display mode described in Patent Document 1 and a multi-domain vertical alignment (MVA) display mode described in Patent Document 2.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-160878    Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-242225    Patent Document 3: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 63-106624    Patent Document 4: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 8-304828    Non-Patent Document 1: de Boer et al., Proc. International Display Workshop '02, LCT4-3., p. 69    Non-Patent Document 2: T. Hashimoto et al., Society of Information Display '95 Digest, 41-4, p. 877